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Has anyone successfully been able to use a form created in one project in another with VS2015?
I have created many forms that I usually need to include in most of my projects, however whenever I try to add them to the new project I can never seem to get them to work.
I would like to add them to a separate project, with their code and designer/image references etc, but I have only been successful in adding the form with code no resources or designer.
Instead I am currently having to manually re-create the same form in a new project and copy and paste and reset all the controls and labels and what not in the newer solution.
In the past I used to do it like this guy did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPBMoibAmU0 But it doesn't seem to work with VS2015?
Surely there's a simple way to do this? My way works but it's very time consuming and I think unnecessary.
So what I used to do in the past: Copy the form1.Designer.cs, form1.cs into the new solutions directory, then in the new solution, right-click the project properties, add existing file and browse and select the two files and click OK.
Yes, people re-use code all the time, this question is coming from a fundamental misunderstanding about how code and projects work. Code intended to be shared should be created in a shared project or shared/distributed library.
Using a distributed library:
Create a class library (.dll)
Add a reference to System.Windows.Forms
Define any code, forms, resources that are intended to be re-used here.
Compile library and retrieve .dll file.
Copy .dll file into your new project and add a reference to it.
Use the form.
This is essentially how the nuget package manager works except it handles managing the physical .dll files and adding of references automatically. If you will be the only consumer of this and you don't intend to check your source code into a source control server (git, tfs, svn, etc) then you could also store this dll only in a single location (your documents folder, etc) so updating it is easier.
If you want to be able to make changes to the original source code in all the projects that use the form, you can instead add the original shared lib project to your new VS solution by right clicking on your solution, clicking add existing project, and navigating to the csproj file of your library project.
Wow I finally worked it out,
To add a existing form of another project to current:
Right-click the Project Properties in Solution Explorer.
Click "Add".
Click "Existing Item".
Browse only for the "Form1.cs" and select it, Click "OK".
Right click the added "Form1.cs" and select "View Code".
Look at top for "namespace", highlight the actual namespace eg: "namespace Form1", so highlight "Form1".
Right-click highlighted namespace and select "Rename...".
A box appears, tick "Include Comments", "Include Strings", then type the new name in(with still the Rename box visible) and Click "OK".
Now just add the resource files to the current project.
Related
I am probably facing a basic problem. I would like to create TimePickers as in this project link: TimePickerProject
This project was given as reference in one of the Stack overflow answers Stack OverflowAnswer
You can download and directly run that project really easy. But couldn't add it to my own project as an independent TimerPicker Object. TimePicker class is inside Opulos folder. As you can see Opulos folder is copy pasted to my own project.
I
And I can see that Timepicker inside my toolbox.
But when I try to drag it to my panel I am facing with this error.
To explain this process more clearly:
Just paste the Opulos folder into the root directory of your program. (I am here. Net framework 4.8 winform)
Edit Opulos/Core/UI/TimePicker.cs
Add the below codes:
public TimePicker() :this(3, true, true, true, true) {
}
Then rebuild the program, you could find it in the toolbox.
Output：
Thanks to jimi's explanation:
Pass default values or configure it to generate a different pre-defined behavior when the class is created via ToolBox.
Keep in mind that those classes are not built with the ToolBox in mind (no reference to ToolBox behavior is specified anywhere), it looks like all are meant to be instantiated in code.
I.e., you may have the same problem somewhere else.
You should know what to do (though decorating the public Control classes with appropriate [ToolboxItem], [ToolboxBitmap] etc. stuff should be considered)
If you are trying to drag another folder into your solution folder, then you can use the default windows file explorer. If you want to import a library from another project, simply right click Dependencies->add project reference, browse, and select the library. In general, you should avoid copying the code itself, and instead add a reference to the output.
Hope I could help, if I misunderstood your question I apologize!
I'm trying to use this color dialog written by someone else in my program but I don't know how to integrate it. I'm very new to C# so I am not really sure what I'm doing.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/33001/WPF-A-Simple-Color-Picker-With-Preview
I would recommend that for third-party code, you do not integrate their source code directly into your own project, but an assembly reference to the compiled foreign code. This makes it easier to separate your code from third-party code, and update the third-party code later on if a new version becomes available.
So this is roughly what you do.
First, create an assembly from the third-party code (the color picker source code):
Download the source code.
Open the Visual Studio solution (.sln) hopefully present in the download.
Create a Release build. (This might require you first changing the build configuration to Release via the Build menu in Visual Studio.)
After a successful build, there should now be the color picker DLL in the bin\Release folder.
2. Next, add the created assembly (.dll) into your own project and reference it:
Put a copy of that DLL into your own solution/project's directory.
In your own project, add an assembly reference to that assembly (via the Solution Explorer window's References node's context menu).
Open your project in the solution explorer, right click on References, click on Add reference, select Browse and add it.
To add an existing project to a solution:
In Solution Explorer, select the solution or the solution folder that you want to add a project to.
Right click, select Add and then choose Existing Project.
Select the project you want to add to the solution and then click Open.
To add an assembly reference to an existing
Right click on References in your project in Solution Explorer
Select Add Reference.
Select Browse and navigate to the assembly
I've got a winforms that looks like the following:
It has an associated code file behind the controls.
It is located in solution X.
There are various other files in X.
I have created a new solution Y with a new blank winforms project in it.
When this is created a load of boilerplate code is created that relates to the blank form.
From X I'd like to import just the above design (with corresponding code) into this project to replace the existing blank form.
Is it easy to do this without confusing the existing project due to all the boilerplate code?
I've tried right-clicking the project in the Solution Expl and using Add > Existing Item but this just confuses the issue. Maybe this is a pointless exercise and I should just right-click the solution in the Solution Expl and using Add > Existing Project and then just delete the blank winforms project in the solution?
While you could just copy the relevant file(s) into the new project, it's better not to repeat yourself. So either "Add Exiting Item", but link the files from their original location...
...with the following result in solution explorer (note the "shortcut arrows")...
...or, better yet, extract the relevant subset of functionality into its own project, then just reference that whole project within the new project.
OTOH, if you want to use the existing form just as a starting point for further customization, consider...
encapsulating the original form into a custom control, then placing that control on the new form,
or visual form inheritance on a form (or even on a control from the above).
I think I would just copy the entire solution X in explorer, then open it and delete all the things that you don't want or need.
I am new to C# and Sharepoint Web Services. I wrote a program awhile back, and I want to use that program as my starting point for the next project. It has all the references and resources already in place. Essentially, I want to copy the solution, and rename it, then change it to meet my current needs.
What's the best way to do that?
Try this:
open Windows Explorer, copy your solution and its folders, paste into a new location.
rename your copied .sln to something else (hit key F2 from Windows Explorer)
open that copied solution, and rename the solution (and perhaps your projects within)
You can open the old project in visual studio and then go to File --> Export Template and follow the wizard.
This will allow you to create a project template that will then be available with all your other project templates in File --> New project.
You can do this per project (or per item which will not help in your case). It then automatically renames your namespaces etc. if the template is configured correctly.
The most straight-forward approach would probably be to just create a new solution, then manually copy all the projects under that solution and add to the new solution (right click on the solution name in Solution Explorer -> Add -> Existing Project.
From there, rename the projects if required, being careful to keep things like the Default namespace and Assembly name consistent with your new project name (you can find these under each project's properties page). Also keep an eye out for any paths that might need changed in the pre / post build steps. You will probably also want to rename the existing namespaces (right-click the namespace in code, Refactor -> Rename...)
Also, this might be a good opportunity to spot which projects will be common to both the old application and your new one, and possibly moving these to a third location from which both solutions can reference them.
This may be a ridiculous question for you C# pros but here I go. I'm a Flash developer getting started in Silverlight and I'm trying to figure out how to create a "codebase" (a reusable set of classes) for animation. I'd like to store it in a single location and reuse it across a bunch of different projects. Normally in Flash I would add a "project path" reference and then start using the code. My question is, how do I add a folder to visual studio so that I can "use" those classes in my project. I tried "Add > Existing Item" but that copied the files into my project directory.
The easiest way would to create a new ClassLibrary project and build it. This will output a .dll file in a folder you can specify in the project settings menus, which you reference from every project that needs it.
Also, you can copy this .dll into the /bin/ folder of your project - this will do the same thing for this specific project, but when you start the next one you can change some details in the codebase library without breaking the first project.
The solution described by Tomas (adding a reference to a dll binary) is the correct solution to this problem; better than referencing the source code and compiling it into each project.
But just for extra information, if you ever do need to add a source code file to your Visual Studio project without having it make a copy of the file you can use the following steps:
Right click on your project in Solution Explorer and select Add -> Existing Item.
Navigate to the location of the source code file and select it.
On the "Add" button in the dialog window there is a drop down arrow. Click this and select "Add as Link".
This will allow you to use this source code file in your project without having VS make a copy of the file.
In Solution Explorer, right-click on the project node and click Add Reference.
In the Add Reference dialog box, select the tab indicating the type of component you want to reference. (for instance for a class library a dll)
Select the components you want to reference, then click OK.